Plus a trifecta of antenna problems for KB5NJD, W3TS and GØMRF
A lot has transpired since my last column, and this month’s discussion topic is fresh in my mind following the destruction of my 80-foot-tall asymmetric Marconi-T vertical in early February (due to an ice storm that hit North Texas). As they say, if it doesn’t fall down, it wasn’t big enough, and that was clearly the case after being in the air for about eleven years and seeing a number of challenging weather events. Fortunately, there were enough pieces still in good shape to cobble a vertical antenna back together and get back on the air within a couple of days of warming up. The new antenna is considerably shorter than the original and has one less top loading wire, making it now an inverted L. Whether I increase the height further and add additional top loading wires will be a decision for later this year. The good news is that it is basically the same radiated signal that I had prior to the storm due to my ability to increase power output from the amplifier to the antenna to make up for the reduced radiation resistance of the shorter antenna (Photo A).
In reality, you can load up just about anything and make it radiate some of the time. I sometimes get discouraged when I hear someone comment that they don’t have space for an antenna capable of working
